Join this meeting online or by phone: rtamichigan.org/2023-Meetings/

We’ll have more notes, recordings and archived materials: detroit.documenters.org/assignments/rt…

📎 Today’s meeting notice: rtamichigan.org/2023-Meetings/ https://t.co/g2ytIIQgiJ

⏮ The last CAC meeting we covered — Madison Ganzak took notes: rtamichigan.org/2023-Meetings/

Meg live-tweeted: twitter.com/megs818/status…

❓ The Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan (RTA) oversees and proposes improvements to public transit in the counties of Wayne, Macomb, Oakland and Washtenaw. It works with DDOT, @SMART_movesus, @CatchTheRide and other transit providers.

Your CAC rtamichigan.org/about/committe…

🚩 Need image descriptions? Contact me and I’ll provide them to you.

Something inaccurate? Email documenters@outliermedia.org with the subject “Correction Request.” I’ll add corrections at the end.

See you now!

⌚️ At 5:03 p.m., the southeast Michigan Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan Citizens Advisory Committee meeting begins! Eric Dryer calls the meeting to order. https://t.co/eSZzc5lNhl

👤 Roll call! Dryer says there isn’t a quorum, so the committee cannot vote on any matters.

The committee approves this meeting’s agenda and the previous meeting’s minutes.

Huh, they just approved some executive appointments despite not having a quorum. I guess the quorum that Dryer said they don’t have isn’t needed for votes. …

I did not see any agenda on the RTA website, and the committee did not name the appointees out loud, so I don’t know who they are.

John Waterman says a certain executive team will meet soon. Now we proceed to an “RTA overview” report presented by Ben Stupka. https://t.co/rs62Z3Xlk0

Stupka says a 5310 call for projects will be released next week. Some updates on the ridership of the D2A2 intercity bus: 5,000 riders in October, dipped in November and December and an uptick in January. Stupka says a recent RTA survey got a “really good response rate.”

My laptop crashed! 😵 First time that happened while documenting, but it was bound to happen.

Re-joining the meeting now…

The last thing I caught: Stupka says another intercity bus route (perhaps the route to Detroit Metro Airport?) will hopefully launch in January 2024 before that year’s NFL Draft, to be held in Detroit.

The committee let me back into the meeting pretty quickly. As I was coming back, folks were talking about the proposed Amtrak transit center in New Center.

Now they’re talking about a “transit wallet” pilot, which sounds like new electronic payment technology. RTA is targeting job-seekers with this pilot, and is partnering with agencies like Detroit at Work.

Stupka says DDOT and SMART have switched providers for their Dart fare passes from online parking payment provider Passport to a more specialized provider, Token Transit.

💼 At 5:42 p.m., the committee proceeds to other business.

No one brings up any matters for other business.

John Waterman says CAC’s next meeting will be April 24.

⏱ At 5:44 p.m., the meeting is adjourned! I will try to cover what I missed using a backup recording of the meeting, stay tuned…

But for now, that’s my live coverage of this RTA Citizens Advisory Committee meeting. I’ll be back shortly!

For more local meeting coverage, check out Documenters.org. documenters.org

Updates will definitely follow below, and perhaps some corrections too. See you in about 30 minutes.

⏪ Here we go again! Here are more notes from today’s RTA Citizens Advisory Committee meeting. For the sake of simplicity — and because my live coverage wasn’t as good as I wanted — I’ll start from the very beginning of the meeting.

⏪ ⌚️ At 5:04 p.m., Chairperson Eric Dryer called the meeting to order. He said he didn’t think the committee had a quorum, so a supermajority was necessary for any votes during this meeting.

⏪ The committee approved this meeting’s agenda — which I couldn’t find on RTA’s website — and the previous meeting’s minutes.

⏪ 📣 At 5:06 p.m., the committee proceeded to hear public comments… but there were none.

⏪ The committee voted to appoint new executive members: John Waterman as chair, along with Michael Bedard, Parnell McCarter, Robert Pawlowski, and an unspecified member named Thomas — either Thomas Yazbeck or Thomas Zerafa. Eric Dryer stepped down as chair.

⏪ 📝 At 5:12, RTA staffmember Ben Stupka presented the RTA Overview and Activity Report. Key points: …